office

During the month  of June I cleared out most of my accessories (read about it here) and asked if anyone wanted to join me. Here’s what I learned in my 30 Days Without Accessories::

1. I Rely Too Much on Accessories

A few years ago I realized that I was addicted to accessories. It can easily happen when there is the perfect storm of a woman who loves beautiful things but doesn’t feel she has the budget to do much more than buy $5 tchotchkes. I’ve been quieting the house for years, but for the first time ever, when I removed the surface accessories my house still felt warm and personal. Slowly I’ve moved from forcing my accessories to carry the burden of personality to finding larger items that will more easily carry that weight. Even with the accessories removed, it still looked like my house. I feel like I’ve turned a corner in my decorating ways. It feels good and grown up.

2. I Crave Cleared Surfaces

There was no good month to do this experiment, and June proved to be the worst. That book I told you I wrote? It’s a crazy amount of work and this month has flashed by in a blur. Even though I don’t feel like I got the benefit of sitting around and contemplating my cleared off surfaces, I was pleasantly surprised almost every morning when I came downstairs to work and was greeted by what seemed like a really clean and calm family room.

Having a feeling of calm and clean in our home made a big difference in my internal dialog with how I felt about our space. I didn’t have the constant urge to get up and put stuff away because even though we had computers and shoes and cameras and sunglasses sitting around, that’s all that was out so it still seemed clean.

3. Less is More

I still think my house is pretty. And I still want my disco ball out front and center. After weeks without accessories I retrained my mind have a lower threshold for stuff. This is exactly what I was hoping would happen. You know how if you don’t eat sugar for a week and then suddenly you have an iced white mocha? And you are all Woah, these drinks are way too sweet!? You lowered your threshold for sweet. That’s what this month did for me. It was like a cleanse.

I still think my house is accomplishing its purpose of being warm and welcoming and meaningful and beautiful and a place of rest even without a million little things sitting around. I want to be more mindful of what I bring out–because I’ve yet to clear out the room of accessories. If I can create a beautiful meaningful home with 1/2 the stuff, that sounds appealing to me.

I definitely will have more things to add to my next Big Sale

I know there were a few brave souls who joined in the 30 days with me, we’d love to hear your thoughts too, link up here, I’ll leave it open for a week.